The Dump Loop

I’ve heard of the dump loop, was told that we were going to ride the dump loop at some point, but had not seen, or experienced, it until yesterday. It’s called “The Dump Loop” because you ride past the landfill, either at the first of the ride or at the middle to middle end, depending on where you start your ride.

The start of our ride was about 5 miles of warm-up. Then a 2-mile climb. It wasn’t too bad, but I remember saying, “oh my gosh” and then was told, “only about a tenth of a mile left to go and we are at the top.” So what do you do? Just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling. At the top, we had a one-mile decline to go down-WHEEEEEEEEE! A brief stop at the top, and getting to the bottom, was enough time to recover from the climb. We turned into a housing community where we stopped at the Merc to top off our water bottles and use the facilities if needed. Allison’s back tire was a little low, so while Michelle (our substitute coach for this ride) was topping off her water bottle, Allison borrowed Michelle’s tire pump. Turns out her pump works more like a deflator than an inflator. There were two guys sitting on the Merc’s porch watching and asked if we needed a tire pump because, in “helping” Allison, I had let ALL of the air out of her tire. Turns out these two men were getting ready to do the loop as well, but were just “fueling-up”. They had a pump and one of them came and pumped Allison’s tire up for her while we all laughed about the circumstance. They let us know that they were starting out after us so if we needed anything, they’d be around eventually. (They never did catch up with us.)

As we got started, we rode through the community and Michelle started telling us about the first hill. She said that it was long and the end of it was really steep. She said it makes her chest hurt by the time she gets to the top. I think this psyched me out. I did pretty well until we got to the steepest part. I made it up a little ways and then ended up walking up. I walking pace was a little slower than Allison and Michelle were riding, and by the time I got to the top, they were rested and ready to go again. Me? I was sucking wind so it took me a bit to recover. Then down a hill.

This hill was short and we had to go cautiously because there was a stop sign at the bottom of the hill and the cross traffic doesn’t stop. Then, up the next hill. Michelle said that we (Michelle and I) were going to talk me all the way up this next hill. It worked-almost. I got to a point, nearly at the top of this one, that I thought I needed a little extra umph to get me up to the top. I was feeling as though my easiest gear wasn’t easy enough and started to stand and pedal. I should have shifted into a harder gear, because as soon as I stood to pedal, it was too easy and I wobbled and realized I was going down if I didn’t get unclipped and catch myself. By that time, I was stopped and there was no getting started up that hill again. So-walking again. When we got to the top of this hill, we had a FABULOUS decline. I don’t know how long it was, but at one point, I did glance at my speed, and decided I needed to put the brakes on a little bit. I was going 45mph in a 30 or 35mph speed zone. YIKES! Then, up the third hill. This one, I conquered!

(And I thought the ride a couple of weeks ago had a “shoot me now” hill. I suspect that I will find a few more hills before this season is over that I will put on the “shoot me now” list.)

At the top of that third hill, Michelle said that the good thing about Galena is it isn’t as steep as those three hills. It’s just long. So, my goal, now, is to be able to conquer those two hills rather than them conquering me. It’s definitely a ride to do in the cool of the morning because there isn’t any shade until the “speedster” hill.

28.37 miles, 2 hours 20 minutes. 12.1 mph Average Speed. 45 mph Max Speed. Total Miles on my bike: 258.3.